TOWNSVILLE rugby league has again been snubbed by high-end powerbrokers, with the Townsville Stingers missing out on representing Australia at next month’s Commonwealth Games.

In a puzzling set of circumstances, it has been decided the same Roosters SG team which was thumped 36-16 by the Townsville Stingers in last month’s Under-18 National Competition final will represent Australia at the Under-19 nines exhibition tournament being played at the Glasgow-based games.

Queensland Rugby League officials told National Rugby League administrators during the off-season that a busy representative carnival — including next week’s Under-18 State of Origin curtain raiser and schoolboys football commitments — would make it impossible for Queensland to send a strong team to next month’s tournament.

But Townsville and Districts Rugby League chairman Ross Anderson said the Stingers had been denied a “fantastic” opportunity to play on the world stage.

“It would have been a huge opportunity for them to go over there and play on an even bigger stage.

“The charter of the (Townsville) Stingers is to get our players to the next level and keep improving, and at the end of the day it would have been a great thing for them to be part of.”

Anderson said a communication breakdown had also occurred between the TDRL and Queensland Rugby League, with Anderson only discovering about the Roosters’ SG Ball outfit travelling to Glasgow through an online article.

“Consultation isn’t anything more than a phone call, so some sort of consultation would have been good,” he said.

The upcoming junior representative calendar includes next week’s Under-18 State of Origin curtain-raiser — featuring four Townsville Stingers players — the GIO Schoolboys Cup and next month’s Australia Open Schoolboys Championships.

Townsville Stingers coach Steve Sheppard said his players would have thrown their hands up for the Glasgow opportunity.

“You should be rewarded for playing well and it would have been a great opportunity for the boys,” he said.

“We would have given (Cowboys coach) Paul Green a call and definitely asked for some tips on how to be successful at nines, given that they did so well at the Auckland Nines.”

Townsville only recently missed out hosting the finals of the statewide Under-16 and Under-18 grand finals, which featured Townsville teams in both encounters.

“After we got some detail around the scheduling at that time of year, and the fact there was a busy representative calendar including the Under-18 State of Origin curtain-raiser and GIO Cup schoolboys competition, we just felt that there was too much footy for these boys,” O’Connor said.

“But it was never pitched to us that the SG Ball team winners would end up going to represent Australia.”

“In wasn’t until the NRL sent us a release to us recently that we found out about it ... in hindsight may not have been the best way to look at it.

“The experience would have been great (for the Stingers), but we thought it would be better for our players to remain on those key development pathways here.”